BYU fan Cameron Loftus watches warm ups prior to the game with Oregon State in Provo Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Summary

No. 10 Oregon State (5-0) came into the game with a backup quarterback, junior Cody Vaz, making his first career start — and was facing the Cougars' highly rated defense. But Vaz played like a seasoned veteran, completing 20-of-32 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns to guide the Beavers to a 42-24 triumph.

“I knew this was going to be a hard venue to step into, but I thought guys helped him out and made plays.”

Oregon State coach Mike Riley

PROVO — It sure seemed like BYU had a golden opportunity to spring a rare upset against an unbeaten, Top 10 team — on its first-ever Homecoming Blackout — Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

But the black-clad Cougars squandered that opportunity.

No. 10 Oregon State (5-0) came into the game with a backup quarterback, junior Cody Vaz, making his first career start — and was facing the Cougars' highly rated defense.

But Vaz played like a seasoned veteran, completing 20-of-32 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns to guide the Beavers to a 42-24 triumph.

Vaz spoiled homecoming, and spoiled the Cougars' shot at knocking off a ranked opponent.

The Beavers broke open a game that was tied, 21-21, at the end of three quarters by outscoring BYU, 21-3, in the fourth period.

While the black attire worn by most of the 63,489 in attendance matched their somber mood after the game, Beaver coach Mike Riley continued his tradition of taking his team to a dining establishment, In-N-Out, just up the road from Edwards Stadium, for burgers and to celebrate another big road victory.

"I don't think anybody in our locker room was particularly surprised Cody played well," said Riley. "I think they've had faith in him as a teammate for a long time. I knew this was going to be a hard venue to step into, but I thought guys helped him out and made plays."

OSU's two star wide receivers came up big, as Brandin Cooks caught eight passes for 173 yards and Markus Wheaton hauled in five passes for 66 yards and two touchdowns.

"Oregon State's ability to throw it over the top of us, big pass plays, I thought was the difference in the game," said BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. "They were able to execute on a lot of critical situations — just giant chunks."

"They just played better than us today," said cornerback Preston Hadley. "They were able to spread us out and get easy throws for their quarterback. Our coverage didn't hold."

BYU linebacker Spencer Hadley said the Cougars' inability to put pressure on Vaz "took a pretty big toll on the defense. They did a great job of protecting their guy back there. We weren't able to get enough pressure on him, and we gave him too much time to make throws."

In the decisive fourth quarter, OSU scored two of its three touchdowns thanks to tipped passes.

"It was one of those days where not many bounces went our way," said Mendenhall.

On third-and-5 from the BYU 5-yard line early in the fourth quarter, Vaz's pass was batted up in the air by linebacker Kyle Van Noy. The ball somehow ended up in the arms of tight end Colby Prince, who was surrounded by three Cougar defenders in the end zone, for a touchdown. That gave the Beavers a 28-21 lead that they would not relinquish.

"It didn't go our way," said BYU quarterback Riley Nelson, who made his first start in nearly three weeks. "If you could sum up this game, it was Kyle jumping up in the air, batting the ball, and that guy catching it in the middle of three of our guys. That's what I felt like happened today. A lot went their way, not a lot went our way. That's the game of football."

"The ball does weird things sometimes and that was one of them," said Spencer Hadley. "Their guy made a play and sometimes it just doesn't bounce your way. On that play, it didn't bounce our way."

Then, despite having a first-and-goal from the OSU 10-yard line, the Cougars couldn't cash in. "We had three shots at the end zone and we didn't put it in," Nelson said. "Two missed throws by me."

The Cougars settled for a 35-yard field goal by Justin Sorensen, cutting the deficit to 35-24.

But OSU scored again on double-reverse by Wheaton for a touchdown with 5:30 remaining in the game.

Popular Comments

I thought Riley did well. But look what Oregon State did with a pocket passer.
Lark got ripped off plain and simple. Make things right and give him a chance.
Help us feel good about being Cougar fans again.

10:44 p.m. Oct. 13, 2012

Top comment

Spokane Ute

Spokane, WA

It's a sad state of affairs; both BYU and Utah are average at best. Sad.

10:35 p.m. Oct. 13, 2012

Top comment

DC

Alexandria, VA

So BYU's defense gave up 35 points and the team is blaming it on things not
bouncing their way? More like unprepared yet again.

It wasn't
so much that they lost - OSU is a top ten team, but it was the way that they
lost. This
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Jeff Call has been a sportswriter for the Deseret News since 1997. He is the BYU beat writer and has been covering Cougar sports since 1993, when he served as sports editor at the Daily Universe. Call has written several more ..